Post-War Government and Politics of the Soviet Far East

Abstract

A Far Eastern Republic appeared on the Pacific coast of Siberia when the Russians began to organize themselves after their Revolution. This new Republic, vvith its capital at Chita, was recognized by the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic on May 14,1920. Its life was short. At the time of its recognition by its large Western neighbor it asked for military aid. Two years later, on February 17, 1922, it concluded a Treaty of Economic Union with that neighbor.1 On February 22 of the same year it joined with the R.S.F.S.R. and the other Republics which had emerged from the Russian Empire in a protocol.2 This Protocol conferred on the R.S.F.S.R. the task of representing all of the Republics, including the Far Eastern Republic, at the first meeting with the Western World at Genoa in 1922. On November 13, 1922, the National Assembly of the Far Eastern Republic went further. It voted to transfer all power to a revolutionary Committee appointed by the R.S.F.S.R. The Far Eastern Republic ceased to exist.8 Since the dissolution of the Far Eastern Republic, the Soviet Far East has had no government of its own or policy distinct from that existing in the U.S.S.R. as a whole. A study of the Soviet Far East has become a study of the U.S.S.R., with special reference to the administrative structure of the eastern regions of Siberias and to Soviet policy as ithas been manifested bythe U.S.S.R. in its relations with other powers in the Far East.